The line between fantasy and reality is thin, and often blurred. We walk through a world of brick and mortar, yet our lives are driven by our hopes and our dreams, which are little more than visions in our imaginations. And the longing for true love is the one dream we hope most to bring into reality. Tonight, we will visit a young gay Black man who's longing for true love leads him to discover the real difference between fantasy and reality, in THE MIDNIGHT ZONE
"HOLIDAY" By C.H. Jones Copyright Dec. 2001
Terry laid face down naked on the bed, with his arms over his head. Slice got on the bed and positioned himself in-between Terry's legs, and spread them slowly apart with his own legs. Removing a condom from its protective wrapping, Slice unrolled it over his big, fat, long dick. He lubricated it with some grease, and looked down at Terry's plump, round ass. He spread Terry's legs open some more so that he could see Terry's ass hole. It was slightly open now because his legs were spread so far apart. Already greased up, the glory hole waited for Slice to act. And Slice was more than ready. Dick hard and throbbing between his muscular, dark brown thighs, he leaned forward and down until he was laying on top of Terry, with his dick laying lengthwise between the cheeks of Terry's ass. He raised up enough so that the head of his dick could find the glory hole itself, and thrust his dick right up into it.
"Ughhhhh! SHIT!" Terry cried with a mixture of pain and pleasure. "OUCH! UGHHH, STOP. Take it OUT!"
"Too late now," Slice said softly into Terry's ear. "You got to TAKE that dick." Slice slipped his arms around Terry's chest and squeezed him real tight.
"Take ALL that dick." Slice had ALL that dick up in Terry now, and stroked it ALL the way up into Terry's ass, with a little extra UMPH this time.
"Uhhh," Terry sighed. "Alright Daddy, you got that." Terry hadn't really wanted Slice to stop. He enjoyed hearing Slice tell him to take it. He loved the way Slice made him take it. That dick was almost too big. And Slice had open his ass hole up as far as it could go. Wide open, with a long dick all the way up in him. It was everything Terry had ever wanted.
"Yea, give up that tight pussy," Slice said. "Give it up real good." Slice was getting started now. Pumping dick up into Terry. And pulling it almost completely out before stroking back in again. It was nice and tight. Just the way Slice liked it.
"Daddy really needs that ROCAWEAR leather," Slice whispered. "You gotta get it for me, You gotta get it for me soon, ya know what I mean. Before it gets too cold."
"Uhh, but I just got, uhh, you that, uhh, sweat, uhh, suit," Terry struggled to say.
"You said you'd get it for me," Slice replied, as he thrust his dick in again, with a little more umph, again.
"Uhhh," Terry cried with each down stroke. "I, uhh, don't uhh..."
"You can do it for me." Slice was really starting to insist. With both his words and with his dick. It had gotten him what he'd wanted before. He was going to make it work for him again. With all this good dick he was laying down, Terry would have to give in to him, again.
Terry was locked in Slice's grip, taking Slice's dick all the way up in him. It was real good, too good. Too good to lose, he felt. Too good to lose for any reason. He felt Slice's hand grabbing his own dick. Pulling on it. Squeezing on it. It was almost time. He heard Slice breathing a little harder now. His hand pumping Terry's dick harder now, until he heard Slice give a loud sigh. Terry was ready to cum himself too. Slice always made it work. Made both of them cum at the same time. Terry could feel a pulsing from Slice's dick on the inner side of his ass hole. Felt Slice squeeze him really tight with one arm, and pull on his dick with his other hand until he started pushing that come out onto the bed. There was a deep intake of breath by both of them. Then they both lay still on the bed for a few moments.
"So when you gonna get it for me?" Slice asked quietly.
Terry laid on the bed and thought. When you're 19, like Slice was, it can be a little important to have the right gear. But it was getting to be too expensive. Just how much of the right gear does one boy really need?
"I just finished getting you that sweat suit. The shirt and the pants cost $80 each. I'm not made of money."
"Can't you put it on your credit card?" Slice asked hopefully.
"That damn coat costs five or six hundred dollars, Slice," Terry said, trying to get a point across.
Slice was silent for a moment. "But that jaunt's like that Terry, it looks good on me. Don't you want me to look good?" he asked.
Now Terry was silent for a moment. There were a lot of things he wanted to say. Maybe needed to say. But...
"I want..." Terry started. "I'd like to see you get yourself together," he struggled to say. Why was he struggling so much, just trying to talk to Slice, (he thought)? "I'd like to see do something other then just hang around the house all the time. You just lay around. You don't wash any dishes, or clean up after yourself, or anything." Terry was feeling a little angry. But only a little.
"Why you got to be complain' all the time?" Slice responded, sounding like he was about ready to cry, or something. "That's all you do. Just complain and complain. It's like you don't even love me anymore."
"No, it's not like that," Terry said.
"You only like me when we're fucking, that's all, you don't love me anymore." Slice said.
"No it isn't that I don't love you anymore," Terry started. "It's just that...you... all you do is look good and be cool. It's all you do. I have to do everything else," Terry stopped. Maybe he was complaining too much. Slice was only 19. Maybe he was expecting too much. But maybe...
"What about that job I helped you get?" Terry asked shyly. "You got it one day, and then quit the next. Why..."
"Man, that jaunt wasn't kickin' out." Slice said.
"Well how would you know, you only stayed one day?" Terry asked.
"Do we have to talk about that now?" Slice asked, sounding a little annoyed.
Terry let out a loud sigh and sat up on the edge of the bed. He was feeling more then just a little annoyed. How much more could he take of this? How much more of it could he really afford. How could he ever live without Slice? Terry got up and went to the bathroom. Then came back and started getting dressed.
"Where you goin' this late?" Slice asked. He sounded a little afraid, like he was about to be abandoned.
"I gotta go out for a while, just take a walk or something," Terry said quietly.
"Where you goin' to?" Slice asked. "When you gonna be back?" He sounded very concerned.
"I don't know," Terry said. "I'll be back..." He didn't finish. He didn't have to. It was his apartment, so he'd have to come back. The question was not when, but what would he be coming back too. It couldn't go on like this. Not for much longer.
It was a chilly December night, and Terry tightened the collar of his Navy style Pea coat against the wind. He'd gotten an apartment downtown to be close to his job. The center city streets were all decorated for Christmas. But the lights didn't seem to be very merry. Where was there to go this late? He should be at home, Terry thought. But home was not what he had hoped for. What had started out to be so exciting had become so very disappointing. Except for the sex part. That was great. But that's just not all there is to a relationship. Maybe Slice was just too young. But can't a man have some maturity at 19? Terry had. Much more then Slice has, he thought. Much more.
After walking several blocks he came to the Video game Arcade. It stayed open all night. He and Slice had spent a lot of time here. And in the sandwich shop next door too. They made a real good cheese steak sub. Terry could remember many nights that he and Slice enjoyed a cheese steak, with fries, naked on the bed watching a movie on the VCR. After having really good sex. Better days that seemed long ago. A cheese steak would go good right now he thought. But the shop was closed. The pizza shop on the other side of the Arcade was still open, but Terry went into the Arcade.
His favorite video game was `temporarily out of service', so he chose another one in the very back of the Arcade. He was feeling like being far away from everyone else, even though there were only two or three other guys in there.
The screen on the machine was dark when Terry dropped his quarters in. It started making a low humming sound. But when he touched the buttons on the game's control panel, he felt an urging, a feeling of being pulled toward the machine. A feeling that he did not want to resist. The room became very dark, and, out of the corner of his eye, Terry thought he saw the whole room being stretched. Expanding in all directions. Like a picture painted on a balloon would if the balloon were inflated. Terry suddenly felt like he was falling. Free falling through a dark and empty space. Falling freely, until he hit a hard surface. It was the floor, and he hit it hard. But it didn't hurt. It didn't hurt at all. He heard a low humming sound behind him, and, looking back, he saw a large purple spiral. It glowed softly as it spun. Humming so low it was felt more then it was heard. The glowing got softer and softer, and the humming lower and lower, until they were no longer there. A bare, gray wall appeared in its place.
Terry picked himself up off the floor and looked around. He was in an empty room. The walls were gray and drab looking. He stepped closer to the wall where the spinning spiral had been and touched it. It was solid. There was no trace that anything had ever been there.
The air was quite warm. Too warm to have a heavy coat on, so he removed his coat and stuck it under his arm. Then, seeing a door on the opposite side of the room from where the spinning spiral had been, he walked toward it and went outside.
Terry found himself standing on the sidewalk of a long deserted street. It seemed to be familiar, but he could not recall just where he'd seen this street before. There were buildings on both sides of the street. Some were low and some were taller. But all of them looked drab. Everything looked drab, almost colorless. Then he noticed something else. There was a McDonald's across the street from him. It had two large windows and a glass door so that Terry could easily see inside. But there was nothing inside of the restaurant. Nothing at all. Now he noticed something else again. He didn't feel down anymore. He vaguely remembered feeling sad some time before now, but he couldn't remember why. All he could be sure of was that he was feeling much better now. Feeling very good. And he didn't know why.
"Hey, you there," cried an excited voice. It sounded some distance away. "Hey... Hi!"
There was a figure running toward. As it got closer, Terry could see that it was a young man, about mid-twenties, like himself. But this guy was light skinned, tall and slim. Dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, with nicely shaped legs, and close cut hair. When he arrived he had a wide smile on his face. He was really kind of cute, Terry thought.
"Boy am I glad to see you!" he said. "Umm, you look good!" The guy was very excited and a look of great pleasure was showing on his face. He looked Terry up and down. Terry was wearing a black Polo sweater with red stripes on the right side. It was fitting him very well. Terry had enough chest and shoulders to fill it out and have it taper to his waist in a nice V shape. After looking Terry up and down again they guy started feeling Terry's chest and arms. Then he grabbed Terry's dick and squeezed it a little.
"Hey wait a minute," Terry said as he brushed the guy's hand away from his crotch.
"Oh, you must be a bottom," the guy says, and immediately reached around Terry and grabbed his behind, pulling Terry real close.
"Hold on just a damn minute!" Terry said. " Who the hell are you. And what the hell is going on here."
"Oh. I'm sorry," the guy said. "I'm Reg. Welcome," Reg said with a big smile.
"Welcome? ... Welcome to what?" Terry asked.
"Well, welcome to, here," Reg replied.
"Here? I don't understand. What's going on, where am I?" Terry asked anxiously.
"Well, you're here," Reg said again. "And you're going to love it too. Just don't be afraid, that's all. I know you're feeling better, just like I did when I got here. All you have to do is not be afraid, and everything will be alright."
Don't be afraid, Terry thought to himself. He was scared to death. The whole world had changed. And had changed suddenly. He didn't know what was going on. And so far, Reg had told him nothing. Why shouldn't he be afraid? But at the same time, he was feeling much better. Better than he'd ever felt before. It was completely confusing.
"Look," Terry started, "I don't know what's going on, but I'm getting out of here." Terry turned toward the door of the building he'd just come out of, and took one step in its direction when Reg grabbed his arm.
"Wait! Please!" Reg said. "Don't be afraid. Please stay. We need, uh,... I mean...Just give it a chance. You'll get used to it. Everything's going to be all right. Everything's better here. You'll see."
Reg was pleading with him, and Terry felt the urge to give in to him. And give in to the way he was feeling now. Then Reg looked Terry straight in the eyes.
"Please stay. Only those who are afraid go back." Reg spoke softly that time, with a more serious tone in his voice. Then he said, with a big smile, "Come with me, let me show you what I mean." He pulled Terry by the arm and soon they were both running down the deserted street.
They soon arrived at a drab looking building where they slowed down and stopped. It looked like all the other buildings except that when they went inside there was something in it, like furniture. And all the other the other trimmings you would expect to find in a house that was lived in.
Standing in the middle of the downstairs room Reg asked, "Can you feel it?"
"Yea," Terry said gleefully, "I can feel it. I felt it as soon as we came in."
"I feel it too," Reg said. "Come on, let's go upstairs."
Terry followed Reg up a narrow flight of stairs and then straight forward into a bedroom. There were four naked guys on a large bed getting into it with each other. They looked like the beginnings of a football team. All of them were big muscled, young looking black men of various skin tones. Some light and some dark. They were all actively engaged in an orgy of all kinds of sexual behavior. Sucking and fucking every which way.
Terry felt an enormous desire to join in with them. He'd started feeling it while they were downstairs, but now it was the only thing on his mind. Get into the action. Quickly, without even thinking, he'd taken off all his clothes. His dick was rock hard. He'd never known it to get this hard before. It even looked bigger then it ever had. Reg had taken all his clothes too. He grabbed Terry around the waist and walked him over to the bed. He then wrapped both arms around Terry and they fell onto the bed beside the others. Terry wrapped both his arms around Reg, and then it hit him.
"Wait!" Terry cried. "There's something wrong." Terry thought for a moment. "This, it isn't safe. How come no one has a rubber on?" He wondered why he didn't think of it right away.
"Oh," said Reg. "There's no AIDS here."
What? Terry thought. "What?" Terry asked
Reg smiled and laughed at the same time. "No," he said. "There's no AIDS here. There're no diseases of any kind here. None. No one ever gets sick here. No one's ever died here either. It's just different here."
"I'm not sure if I can believe that," Terry said.
"I know," Reg said. "It took me a while to get used to that too. But it's true." Reg took Terry by the hand and walked him to another corner of the bedroom where they could both sit on a sofa.
"Look Terry, I'll tell you everything I know. I can't remember how long I've been here, but it's been a while. Now, I don't know where we are, or how we got here, or what the hell is going on. All I know is that it's different here. Everything's different. We even feel different. I mean, have you ever in your life felt like you do now?"
Terry had to admit it. "No, I've never felt like this before. I've never wanted to have anyone this much. And I don't even know who you are, but, it feels like it doesn't matter."
"I know," said Reg. "And it really doesn't matter. That's how it is here. There's no illness, no diseases, no death. There's no pain of any kind. And there're no worries either. You don't have to work. You don't even have to eat. It's just fun all the time. You can have all the sex you want, feel it and enjoy more then you've ever done before. And everyday is a holiday! You can do whatever you want! Any time you want." Reg looked like he was on top of the world. "Do you see now why you should stay?"
Terry wasn't sure what to say or do. It was like all this was too much to take in all at one time. Then Reg wrapped his arms around Terry in a gentile embrace. The touch of Reg's body against his own really made the intensity of Terry's feelings rise. Reg started turning Terry over, face down on the sofa. As he turned, Terry noticed Reg's dick for the first time. Extra big and throbbing, it looked like it was too much to take in all at one time. But Terry felt like he really, really wanted to try. He let Reg spread his legs open with his own legs. Felt the head of Reg's dick slip between the cheeks of his ass. And felt all of that big dick slip right up in him, without any trouble at all. It felt really strange that it didn't hurt. In fact, it was feeling better then anything he'd ever felt before. And then, it hit him again.
"I can't do this!" Terry cried, and wiggled his way out from under Reg.
"What's wrong Terry?" Reg asked.
"I can't do this, Reg." Terry said. "I belong to someone else. I don't know why I didn't think of it before. Plus, I just don't do stuff like this. I don't mess around. I only have sex with Slice. Yea, Slice."
"Who's Slice?" Reg asked.
"He's my..." Terry started.
"You're boyyyyyy friend." Reg said slyly.
"Yes." Said Terry "He's my friend. I don't know why I forgot about him."
"Well, you'll forget about him in time," Reg said.
That statement went through Terry like an electric shock.
"I don't want to forget Slice," Terry said quickly. "We've been together too long. I don't want to forget him. I--I love him."
"Oh," Reg said, looking down at the floor. "Well, you don't have to worry about any of that here either."
"What?" Terry didn't understand that.
"I mean, you just don't have to be bothered with a whole lot of that relationship stuff. It just gets in the way anyhow." Reg sees the confused look on Terry's face. "You see, it's like this. Everyone here was in a relationship with some guy. Even me. Especially me. And it just didn't work out." Reg's voice had gotten low and sorrowful. "Guys are just no good that way."
"I don't believe that at all." Terry said.
"Oh yeah, well let me show you something. Take this guy `Slice'," Reg laughed at the name. "A guy with a name like that. I'll just bet he's a bum."
"Don't you say that about him," Terry was angry now, "you don't even know Slice."
"Oh no." Reg starts. "I'll bet you he's got no job. He lays around the house all day doing nothing. He eats all your food and spends all your money, and what do you get for it? Nothing."
"That's not true," Terry said, even though he know it was true. All too true. "He's...he's there when I need him."
"So he's got dick," Reg said flatly. "And what else has he got? How do you know if he even likes you. You say you love him, but what are you to him, besides a free ride?"
Terry was silent. Everything that he had feared, and had tried not to think about, he had just heard out loud. He couldn't avoid it any longer.
"He knows the way I like it, Reg. And he gives it to me just that way." Terry finally said.
"It comes back to that dick again, doesn't it?" Reg said. "Don't feel bad," he continued. "We're all suckers for it. Except for the ones who're suckers for some good booty. A guy comes along with a big dick and those sexy thuggish ways, and you fall for it. I've been through it. Everyone here's been through it. You get involved with these guys, and you give it all you've got. And you get nothing in return. I think that's why we're all here. We all tried to make it work, and it didn't. All we got was hurt. Face it Terry, it's not going to work out. This `Slice', he's just not worth it."
Reg saw the pain in Terry's face. He thought that Terry might start crying any minute. He reached out and put his hand on Terry's chest. Then put his other arm around his shoulders.
"Come on Terry," Reg said. "You'll forget about him in time. If you stay here with us, you'll never have to be hurt like that again. Just let that other feeling in again. The feeling you felt when we came in. All you have to do is not be afraid."
Terry sank into the sofa. He didn't want to forget Slice. He was trying hard to remember him. And it was getting harder to remember him. Terry forced the image of Slice into his mind. He tried as hard as he could to focus all his attention on the picture of Slice in his imagination. He recalled the first time they got together. Slice was perfect. He was dark skinned. They were about the same height, but Slice was leaner, and stronger. His chest was cut nicely. He'd been a gymnast in high school, which was only a few years ago. Every muscle in his body had been worked, and it all still looked good. He'd get right in-between Terry's legs and spread them open with his own. And then he'd get right up into Terry. Slipping that big hard dick up in his ass hole with one good thrust. Slice would make it hurt, but Terry liked it to hurt. Slice had even asked him, that first time with him.
"You like it to hurt, don't you?" Slice asked.
"Just a little," Terry replied.
"Well then you like it to hurt," Slice said. Terry did like it to hurt. And Slice made it hurt just right. He even had his baseball style Sixers cap on, turned to the side, while they were having sex. That turned Terry on a lot. And he talked to Terry the whole time. He told Terry how he was going to make Terry his girl forever. Slice took complete control of Terry in the bed. Made Terry take all that dick, and didn't let him go until it was all over. It would often take a while. And then, sometimes, he would start all over again. Slice would let Terry touch him and feel him all over. Terry loved that too. Slice wasn't shy. He was free with himself with Terry. Except for his buns. Slice wasn't giving them up. But Terry didn't mind that. It was Slice. It was just who he was. It had been great for months. Terry had started buying Slice clothes and stuff from the beginning. Just small things at the start. Slice had bought Terry a few things too. Not very expensive stuff. Slice didn't have much money. Terry had the job. And he'd started getting Slice more expensive things as time went on. Terry had given in to Slice when he really didn't want to. But he did. Maybe Terry had gone too far, given in too much. Maybe he'd made Slice dependent on him for too much. Maybe if he...
"Terry!..." it was Reg. "Terry,... Come on man, you got to stop thinking about him. It's only going to get you down. Remember how you felt when we first came up here. Let him go. You can feel that way again." Reg seemed to be pleading with him again.
"Yeah, I remember," Terry started. "But now I can remember something else too." Terry paused for a moment. "I remember that I liked it to hurt. I like it like that." Terry surprised himself with the admission of something so personal.
"But you don't have to be hurt anymore Terry. Listen to me..."
"No, you listen to me," Terry said boldly. "I'm getting out of here. I'm not going to forget Slice. I want to be with him. And I'm going to." Terry collected his clothes together and ran downstairs to put them back on.
"Wait, Terry!" Reg cried, "Wait..." Reg grabbed up his clothes and followed Terry down the steps. By now, the other four guys on the bed had stopped what they were doing, grabbed their clothes and followed Reg and Terry downstairs too.
"Terry...Terry wait," Reg cried. "Think about what you're doing."
"I have been thinking Reg," Terry said as he put his closes back on. "And I think Slice is worth it. He is worth giving it another try. I believe he does like me. Maybe not in the same way that I love him, but there is something there. And maybe I've made a few mistakes too. But he is worth it, and I'm going back to him."
"You want to go back," Reg started. "Well, there's AIDS back there. There's illness, and there's pain, and there's death too. Is that what you really want?"
"Well that's just life Reg. I can't do anything to change it. So part of it is fucked- up. You just be careful. You be safe in what you do, you do the best you can, and you keep on living. It's just what we've always done. And with Slice, it just seems worth it, for however long it lasts."
Reg walked up close to Terry and put his hand on Terry's arm. The touch brought back the feeling Terry had felt when he first came into the house. It was a wonderful feeling. A feeling of strong sexual desire. It wasn't because he liked Reg as a sex partner. It was just the feeling itself that made him want to do it so much. It was overwhelming, but Terry tried to fight it off.
"If you leave here Terry, you'll never feel this good again," Reg said in a very serious tone.
Terry looked Reg straight in the eyes. "Then that's just how it will be," he said. Terry used all the strength he could find in himself to move his arm away from Reg's touch. He then turned away from him, bolted out of the front door and went running down the street. Reg and the other four guys had put on some clothes and were running after him. Terry still felt the overwhelming desire. But he kept running. He wanted to go back, he wanted to be with Slice, more then anything else. Now he could hear that low humming sound, the same one he'd heard before, and he stopped in front of that very building. Through the window he could see the purple spiral on that same wall. Spinning and glowing. Reg and the others caught up with him.
"Terry...Terry, please don't go," Reg pleaded. "We need you here. There's not that many of us. We need fresh faces, new bodies. We need new people. It gets boring having the same guys all the time."
"Really?" Terry laughed. "I've been having the same guy for months, and I'm not bored. Don't you see? It's because you don't care about each other. There's no love here. That's why it's boring."
"Terry please," said Reg. "All you have to do is not be afraid."
"You've said that over and over Reg," Terry said. "But you're wrong. It's those who stay here, there're the ones who are afraid. You're the one who's afraid. Afraid of real life. Afraid to take a chance just because you lost once before. It's you who's really afraid."
"Terry, PLEASE!" Reg cried.
"Remember this door, Reg," Terry said. "One day you won't be afraid anymore, and you'll want to go back too." After that Terry ran through the door of the building, ran as fast as he could toward the spinning spiral and dove headfirst right into it.
Terry landed on the floor and bumped his head on the game machine behind him. It hurt.
"OUCH...! SHYT!" he said. "Damn, that..., I'm back, I'm really back." Terry got up off the floor, and was standing in front of the video game he'd started to play. He almost touched it but...There was no way in hell that he was going to touch that machine ever again.
There was a glass-enclosed office in the middle of the arcade, on the right side of the room. It looked like the ticket booth at a movie theater. An old, fat, ugly, unshaven man was sitting in it. He had the stub of a fat cigar stuck in his mouth. He looked like he'd been born with that cigar stub stuck in his mouth. Terry walked up to it and knocked on the glass.
"There's something wrong with that machine in the back," Terry told him.
The old man pointed to a sign on the wall behind him in the office. "No refunds pal," he said, which was what the sign read.
"You don't understand. There's something wrong with it," Terry said again.
"You play at your own risk," the old man said, pointing to another sign.
"That's not what I mean. It..." Terry tried to say.
"Look pal,"," the old man said, pointing to another sign: MANAGEMENT IS NOT RESPONSIBLE...
"I'm trying to tell you..." Terry tried to say.
"Hey, get out of here, I don't want to hear all that shyt," said the old man.
"But..." Terry was frustrated now. "Well, fuck you." Terry said.
"Fuck you too, get out of here," the old man said. He kept muttering something, but Terry really didn't care. He stepped out of the arcade into the cold night air and ran into Slice.
"Where you been at man," Slice said. "I been lookin' all over for you."
Terry was so glad to see Slice he was about to grab him and hug him right there on the street.
"You look cold man, where your coat at?" Slice asked.
"I uh...guess I left it somewhere," Terry said.
"You left your coat somewhere cold as it is, you must be bugging'," Slice said. He took off the coat he was wearing and started to put it around Terry. Terry stopped him.
"Before we go any further we got to get something straight." Terry began. "You're gonna have to get yourself together."
"Come on Terry, stop buggin'," Slice.
"I'm serious, Slice." Said Terry. "It's time you started acting like a man. You're almost twenty years old, and you've got no job, and you're not even thinking about your future. If you keep just laying around the house all the time waiting for me to buy you this and buy you that, then you'll just end up just being a bum."
"Oh man, do we have to go through this again?" Slice interrupted.
"Yes," Terry said. "Yes we do. Because it's just cool to be able to stand on your own two feet. To make some money of your own, and to make a future for you're self. Instead of depending on me all the time for everything. I want a man in my life Slice. Not a bum, or a child that I'll have to take care of. And if you don't think you can do that, then you'll just have to move back home with you're mother until you grow up." Well Terry thought, he'd said it now, and it was too late to take it back.
"Well um...," Slice started. "Um, I mean like, um... Well damn Terry, what's got into you now?"
"I'm serious, Slice. You've got to decide what you're going to do, and decide right now." Terry said.
"Well um...I um... Damn, Terry," Slice said. Terry didn't say anything. He just waited.
"Put this coat on Terry," Slice said, "it's cold out here."
"So what about it?" Terry asked.
"Well um... can't we talk about this later?" Slice asked.
"No," Terry said. "There is no later. There's only now. You have to start now. And you've got to work at it everyday. There's no breaks, no holidays. You have to work at being a man everyday, just like I do."
"Well um...damn... alright," Slice said. "Um... I guess I could try."
That was a first step Terry thought. And the first one is always the hardest. Slice put his coat around Terry. He then put his arm around Terry. And they walked back home together.
It's said some people live in a fantasy world. Maybe so. But in a sense, don't we all? As humans, we tend to accomplish only those things that we dream about. And in the end, it is our own struggle and effort, and the willingness to take a chance, that brings those dreams into reality.
Thank you for joining me this evening, and I hope you'll join me again, next time, for THE MIDNIGHT ZONE.